Jumping in on this thread as I am a car cleaning/detailing freak
Been doing high level car washing for years now , not enough to be classed a detailer but far higher than most weekend cleaners
The garage is like a mecca of car detailing products and takes up an entire wall/shelving of the stuff. You name it , I have tried it and love a nicely washed car.
I have , for my sins, always had Karcher and totally agree the build quality has suffered over the years to such an extent that I know my K4 is on borrowed time.
I have noticed over the years that the quality has gone downhill and certain parts are just so annoying. The hose is the best example, so stiff that it is impossible to wind back up at the end of the day. Eventually I will , when my K4 dies, bin the brand and go for this model
https://www.cleanstore.co.uk/products/Product.asp?ID=16235
Yes I know it is not cheap but at least it will last a few more years than any other model on the market.
In the meantime I have done a few upgrades to the K4 which have made it more bearable. Fairly inexpensive upgrades and one is a massive hack but thought I would have a go
First off the hose, utter ***** and so stiff. So binned it for one from direct hoses and the short gun combo. 5 metres of lovely kink free hose
https://www.directhoses.net/collect...hose-and-short-trigger-with-quick-fit-nozzles
Now for the hack. My model is the K4 but not the premium model which means it has not got the hose reel which is annoying, just a hook to manually wind the hose.
Like this thing
But then I noticed that the premium version has the reel and in looking at the spare parts I could see the nozzle connector looked very similar so ordered just the parts I needed from here
Basically you need the inner wheel, the outer wheel and the 9002 bit. Took apart my plastic foot/hook thing where the original hose connects to, added in these three parts, and after a little bit of swearing got it all connected. Now I have a working hose reel and all is good with the world